March 23, 2025
MAYSVILLE, Ga. — Late winter is the time for men to get together to talk hunting, eat wild game, and hear about Jesus. At events across Georgia, churches are seeing fruit from their outreach to men who enjoy the outdoors.
Maysville Baptist Church held its 19th Annual Wild Game Dinner on Feb. 20. The church sold 1800 tickets for the event and had a waiting list of those who wanted to attend. Evangelist Scott Smith, who serves as director of communications, marketing, and events with the Georgia Baptist Mission Board, said preaching at the event was the “best opportunity of my entire ministry, evangelistically speaking.”
Smith reports that 94 people accepted Jesus as Savior at the event. “Let me say this first: all glory to God for the power of His Gospel to do the work,” he declared. Smith said the church does an amazing job of hosting the event, and their focus is on one thing: making sure that every man that attends hears the gospel and has a chance to respond.
At Bethel Baptist Church in Omega, just over 400 men heard a “clear and plain” gospel message at Beast Feast 2025 on Feb. 25, said Pastor Troy Dykes. He said 46 men responded in faith to the presentation by Stacy Dyer, the associational missionary strategist at the Morganton and Mountaintown Baptist Association.
Dykes, said it was the third year the church has hosted the event, which is a collaboration between five local churches. “We pool our resources with Pine Hill, Pine Forest, Pine Level, and New Hope,” he said. “It’s a kingdom thing, five small churches coming together for the glory of God.” Pine Level provides the cooking team, Dykes said, and coming together with other churches allows them to make the event free for those that attend.
Dykes said these events appeal to men who typically might not go to church. “These men and boys love hunting, love fishing, love the outdoors,” he explained, “but they won’t come into a church setting.” At Beast Feast, they can “eat like men and hear a message from a man’s man.” And when they leave, they don’t do so empty-handed. Dykes said that every attendee left with a camo Bible thanks to a partnership with Gideons international.
Stories of successful events and changed lives are abundant throughout the state. Burnt Hickory Baptist Church held its men’s event on March 3 and reported that 1200 men attended and 42 “said yes to Jesus!”
But coming forward as a new believer is only the first step in a life of faith. “The follow-up at Maysville is super intentional, Smith said. "They have fully nailed it on the wild game dinner evangelistic event.”
For David Sharpton, men’s ministry pastor at Maysville, that follow-up is “especially important.” He said his team doesn’t wait and goes through all the decision cards the night of the event. “If they’re from our Jerusalem,” he explained, “and don’t indicate they have a church home, we set up appointments to visit them. We take them a Bible, a book for new believers, and invite them to become disciples.”
Sharpton said that if the new believers indicate that they do have an affiliation with a church, they’ll send that church a letter sharing with them the activity that led to the conversion and a copy of the decision card. If the new believer is from outside the Maysville area and in need of a church home, Sharpton will reach out to a church close to them that he knows is active in making disciples.
“There has to be a birth,” he declared, “but then there has to be the raising.”
